Your workplace is dangerous — even if you don’t know it.
According to the National Safety Council, someone is injured on the job every seven seconds of the day. Workers in the service industry, transportation, manufacturing, maintenance and construction tend to fare the worse. However, anybody — even office workers — can get hurt on the job.
The most common workplace injuries tend to fall into one of three categories:
Overexertion
Sprained backs, strained shoulders and repetitive motion injuries (like carpal tunnel) are very common in almost all fields. They also account for about a third of workplace injuries. Many of these could be avoided if workers were trained on how to properly lift, stand, carry and move items during their work and encouraged to take short breaks.
Contact injuries
These account for about a quarter of workplace injuries. They include incidents where workers are struck by falling objects, hit by moving equipment, caught in between two objects (like a truck and a wall) or crushed under collapsing equipment or materials. They’re particularly problematic in the construction industry, in factory work and in warehouses because of all of the heavy objects and machinery around.
Slips, trips and falls
Accounting for about another quarter of workplace injuries, slips, trips and falls can occur down steps, off ledges, off curbs, off ladders and in many more situations. They can also happen when a floor isn’t properly cleaned after a spill — or when tools are simply left sitting around. Almost all slips and falls are preventable — and they’re a major source of serious back injuries and head injuries.
If you’re injured in any of these ways at work, your employer has an obligation to provide you with the workers’ compensation benefits you need to have an income and obtain treatment. If you’re struggling to get your workers’ compensation claim approved, find out more about your legal options.